Top Marketing Strategies to Drive Growth for Your Auto Repair Shop

When you open up for the first day of business in an auto repair shop, your focus may be more attuned to the cars pulling into the garage than the latest trends in small business marketing strategies. But, being in the business of running an auto repair shop is still running a small business.

While you focus on your award-winning customer service and high-quality auto repair services, we can help with the must-do marketing activities you can’t afford not to do.

Over the last decade, you may not have been surprised to see the shifts in business trends, especially when it comes to marketing strategies. Advertisements on the radio slowly gave way to sending customized follow-up emails to loyal clients. Direct mailer funds may have been averted to fund social media campaigns to gain the attention of the pool of potential clients out there.

Looking at other auto repair shops around town and deciphering what their successful marketing strategies are can be difficult. Instead of comparing yourself to your competition, use that energy to explore new strategies and bump up your own potential.

In our FREE Small Business Marketing Guide we go over comprehensive strategies that can be applied to any small business. To help inspire you, in our guide you’ll also find examples that are specific to Auto-Repair shops. More generally, here are some strategies you can try that can start showing immediate impact:

Create word of mouth

Auto repair shops will always carry a large part of their business through the most effective form of marketing that exists: word of mouth. When you go above and beyond in terms of service and what is provided at what price, people will talk.

For someone to share a positive experience, it must be exceptionally positive. People will be 5 times more likely to tell someone of a positive experience than of a negative one.

Keep in mind that with so many auto repair shops out there, providing service that goes above and beyond means that service for your customer should exceptional every step of the way. Pay attention to even the smallest of details. Watch how one person’s positive experience will transform your business.

Talk to your current customers

Finding new customers will always be an important aspect in growing the business of an auto repair shop, but do not forget about the customers who you already have. If you haven’t already, compile and cultivate an email list of your current automobile shop customers and send them discounts, service reminders, and the latest news about your auto repair business. Are you moving? Will you renovate? Has a new automobile technician joined your staff? Get creative in how you might be able to keep your customers tucked into your corner of the world.

Keep in mind, by sending customers valuable emails (emails that won’t be deleted right away will probably include a discount for service, a free product with service, or another form of savings), they’ll appreciate feeling appreciated. (They’ll save those emails, too!)

Show your skills: Share auto-inspired education

Since you know cars better than most people, share what you know with those who are entrusting their cars to you. Remember, for most Americans, car buying, car fixing, and car trouble can be extremely stress-inducing. One bad run-in with a mechanic who overcharged them or a misinformed automobile shop technician in the past who diagnosed a problem wrong can leave a bad taste in a customer’s mouth for years.

Eliminating that bad taste isn’t your job, but you can help alleviate it. When customers bring their car to your auto repair shop, for whatever reason, help these customers understand what is wrong with their car and explain how fixing it will transform their car for the better.

Help your customers see the larger picture. Some individuals may not care to know, but for others, the experience of their car mechanic sharing education with them can change the whole dynamic.

These customers, feeling that you have their best interest in heart, are more likely to keep coming back. They’ll drive away with knowledge they didn’t have, and in that way, you’ll truly be making a difference in their lives.

Reviews, reviews, reviews

If neighbors don’t talk to each other about where they take their car in, individuals are going to rely on what’s written online.

Having an abundance of reviews will help potential customers see the validity of your auto repair shop. Incentivize customers to leave reviews and when you see their review has posted (positively), thank them with a note and a discount off a future service or an oil change on the house. Make this offer publicly or send them a handwritten note in the mail.

Don’t be afraid of negative reviews. Though these negative Nancys may look like their bad day reflects negatively on your business page, see it as a chance to turn a negative experience into a positive one. When you acknowledge the bad review online and extend an effort to the individual, while you might not be able to transform every negative Nancy to a positive Patsy, other customers will at least be able to see a trace of your response, an apology, and that you’re, just like them, human. 

Don’t overlook the power of social media ads

What if you transformed your direct mailing budget into a budget for advertisements on social media? With highly specific demographic specifications and options affordable as you like, social media ad campaigns can help you create tailor-specific ads for whoever you are trying to reach.

Don’t discount your own profile pages either. With the right person in charge, a unique point of view, and a touch of humor, a social media page can be buzzing with activity, which in turns grows business. By sharing car-related videos, tips, stats, discounts, and simple automobile recommendations like knowing when it’s time to change your oil or purchase new tires, you could be drumming up new business in no time.

Marketing strategies will always be transforming, but for now, get your business up to the next level with marketing strategies like these that are specifically geared to auto mechanic shops.